Did Someone Mention Father's Day?

There are many great things about Father's Day, but the phone calls are the best.  We catch up on a lot of news. And they always have lots of news.  I bet there's a lot of news from their cousins as well.  (Hint, hint - share)   We'll get to the news in a minute, but back to Father's Day.

One of the many articles on fathers in the papers this weekend was one that said the problem with Father's Day is that it was not Mother's Day, where there's flowers and kisses and hugs.  Father's Day, the author said, was more like an annual employee performance review.  How'd he do this year?  Hmmm.  Takes the shine off my favorite holiday.  

Back to the news.  Here's the really important item - John and Marilyn put their house in Pittsfield on the market.  They had wanted to downsize for a few years, so they made the leap.  Perhaps it was the fact that it's been so cold up here, colder than it was in Florida in March.

Joe told us his date for coming back to the U.S. is July 14 (Bastille Day - time to get out of Europe)  He is trying to take advantage of his final few weeks with easy travel, and spent last weekend in Lisbon which he said was wonderful - cheap, historic and hospitable.  He's looking for trips to Wales, Ireland and the Lake District before departing.  

Margaret and Andrew have been married a month, as of tomorrow.  Time flies.  Next thing you know they'll be celebrating their 40th wedding wedding anniversary (Happy anniversary David and Paula, and Peter and Janet - belated!)   Margaret has been taking African dance classes and is having a performance this coming Saturday.  Her summer session class ends this week, and then she's off.

Meanwhile in New York City, Annie is enjoying her internship at Bank of America.  She and Gregg went to the beach yesterday, Coney Island -  a first for Annie.  The photo here is from a few weeks ago when we climbed the "mountain" in Pittsfield State Forest.  

Things are slowing down for both Mary and me, which is good.  Her tutoring work ends this week, but she has been stepping up her swimming to prepare for the big meet in Montreal in August.  You should hear her workouts  Not even sure I could walk that far. We've both been putting in a lot of hours in the garden, but Mary has about eight different flower beds, and I have just the one veggie garden.  Her flowers look great.  My project in North Adams is winding down, so I'm off on my next adventure preparing a tour of Pittsfield's historic mills.  I chaired my first Historic Commission meeting this week, which saw the demolition of two buildings.

Out in Chicago, we hear Daniel is out of school and at a basketball camp.  Claire is home for the summer and helping out with chores around the house.  She has a volunteer project teaching music at a school for autistic children.   Andrew is nearing decision on his request to retire.  Next week.  

Summer's approaching and we see a wonderful time ahead, looking forward to spending time with so many of you.  And then I know it's going to end, but it's too soon to think of that.

At church today, we heard a few prayers for fathers who are no longer with us.  How lucky we all were.  

Love from up here.   

P-rade at P-ton with P-ter

That Time of Year!

I always enjoy Reunions. In part that's because nobody does it like Princeton (it ain't bragging if it's true), but also because I get to see classmates, teammates, former students, and new friends, too. Over 20,000 alums return each year, all wearing orange and black garb in all sorts of themes.

This year was very special. On Friday, I attended a total of four panel discussions all of which feature detailed examinations of issues by alums and faculty. Topics: Climate Change (scary), Living the Arts (hopeful, and one of my former students was on that panel), Privacy and Secrecy (scary) and Too Big to Fail? (Scary, Pop's classmate Paul Volcker was on the panel and is very pessimistic). I spent some time after with Pop's classmate Brendan Byrne and hitched a ride in his State Trooper driven car down to the Class of '49 dinner. Pop's class had its 65th Reunion, and in Princeton lore that's your last as a separate Reunion, after this, you're just part of the "Old Guard." I spent some time chatting with some of Pop's and Mom's dear friends. Only 250 of the original 820 remain. On Friday night, Janet and I did some serious dancing.

Each "major" reunion class (i.e., those whose years out end in 5 or 0) has its own site, and off-year classes two years before and after share that site (for free, too!) So this year's 40th was the class of '74, the year after me, and the real treat here was all the soccer players who were juniors when I was a senior. I haven't seen any of them since I graduated. It's fascinating what you remember and what others remember about the team. I heard all sorts of stories about things I had long since forgotten. Factoid: over a nine year period, I was the only goalkeeper for Princeton soccer who did not become a doctor. I also got to see a few of my former students.

The centerpiece of Reunions (well, other than the Friday and Saturday night parties) is the P-Rade, a huge festive affair in which all the classes march through the campus dressed up in their orange and black costumes. The route is lined with classes waiting to march. When the Class of '49 came through, all the members were in golf carts (too far to walk). The first was Brendan Byrne and the second was Judge John Kern, for whom I clerked after my first year of law school. I chatted with both. When my classmates asked who they were, I said "my first two bosses." That evening Janet and I went to the University Orchestra concert down by the stadium and enjoyed the spectacular fireworks that are now part of Reunions, and then danced the night away to the sounds of a band which did great covers of 50s, 60s and 70s songs. As we always do, we closed the place down. An added bonus was seeing a play the next day in Trenton.

You can see why this weekend is so special for me, because it covers such a large span of my life. Pop's class includes two people I worked for, and who gave me very important boosts in life, and he was and still is much adored and admired by his classmates. They often remind me that he had three jobs as a student and yet graduated in two and half years. He was Class Agent and President and head of the entire Alumni Council. Then there are those from my era, including in some cases new friends I did not know then. And then there are the ten plus years worth of students from my teaching days. Add in the panel discussions and the parties and it's hard to think of a more meaningful weekend. I am not the least bit sentimental about my time in college, but it was certainly influential and continues to be influential in all sorts of ways I couldn't foresee. It's a very large part of my very good fortune in life.

June, so soon?

Nice name for a song, but perhaps after our winter, "June not soon enough."  Except that it doesn't rhyme.

We've been waiting for warmer weather.  And it's here, at least sometimes.  But enough to do some firsts for the season - first bike ride, first gardening, first tour at Arrowhead and first ride on THE KAYAK!  Wonderful - and thank you once again.  Maybe even first fishing this week, if I can get organized.

And a first for Annie this morning who is off to her summer internship at Bank of America.  Good luck.  Annie had spent a week or so up here relaxing and doing some school work after her semester finished and after the wedding.  She helped out with gardening and got her mother on Facebook.  Look at social media, it's about to get a lot more social.

And a first for Bubble, the cat.  A chipmunk.  Stay away critters!  

Mary is wrapping up her school year, but will work with the same boys from Ghana in the month of July.  She has also signed up to swim in the world master's championships in Montreal in August.  This past week, she helped a friend do all the flowers for a wedding.  It was a nice insight into how elaborate and extensive such work can be.  The final result was exquisite and elegant.

Speaking of weddings, it sounds like Margaret and Andrew are back to the work and school routine.  Margaret has started her summer class sessions.  Off on their adventure.

Joe went back to London after a week off in Washington and is busy wrapping up details for his return in a few weeks.  We're looking forward to having you closer, Joe.

John and Marilyn are closer as they closed up their winter quarters and drove back to sweatshirts and long pants for the first time in months,  They came over for a welcome home pizza dinner with Colleen and Pauline.  They were a bit exhausted as they had a litter of 10 Borzoi pups born over the space of two days and nights last week.

We're planning our summer trip, destination Wisconsin with stops in Rochester, Toronto and Georgian Bay.  It will be fun to see Green Lake, that has been such a big part of Andrew and Lur's life.

Saw a good photo of Peter on Facebook at Princeton reunions.  Looks like too much excitement.

My refrain about retirement is that I'm busier than I want to be.  I took on a part-time job helping a firm do a survey of historic buildings in North Adams.  Lots of deed research which can be pretty detailed.  UMass has asked me to stay on and help out with their scholarship advising so I go over there a couple of times a week.  And last week I was named chairman of Pittsfield's Historical Commission.  All I really want to do is mow the lawn.  And go kayak-ing.  I'll figure this out.

That's all from up here.  Love you guys

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